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• 1. Charlie+ | January 4th, 2007 at 7:37 am

  For the Sake of Christians

  ——————————————————————————–

  This is what Aoun said in regards to why he wants the government to collapse.

  “Taking to the streets is our battle to recover the role of the Christians on the level of power, since the electoral law deprived us of our rights and our participation.”

  For those who want to understand what he means, please read the analysis below.

  After the 2005 elections, a lot of the Christian seats in parliament were taken by Hariri, Jumblatt and Hezbollah/Amal, due to the bad election law which sidelined the Christians. Of the 64 Christians in the parliament, 32 were Christians who did not represent Christians. That’s 50% of the Christian seats. These 32 seats were distributed as follows:
  17 were part of Hariri’s bloc equating to 47% of his entire bloc
  8 were part of Jumblatt’s bloc equating to 50% of his entire bloc
  7 were part of the Hezbollah/Amal bloc equating to 20% of their entire bloc

  The remaining 32 Christian seats were distributed as follows:
  14 to Free Patriotic Movement
  5 to Lebanese Forces
  5 to Qornet Shehwen
  3 to Elie Skaff’s Bloc
  2 to Kataeb
  1 to Tashnaq
  1 to Democratic Left
  1 to Murr

  According to these results:
  27% of Christians support Hariri before any other politician
  22% of Christians support Aoun before any other politician
  13% of Christians support Jumblatt before any other politician
  11% of Christians support Nasrallah/Berri before any other politician
  8% of Christians support Geagea before any other politician

  This is what the 2000 election law did. Everyone knows that Hariri, Hezbollah and Jumblatt don’t have more Christian supporters than Geagea. In fact, Hariri, Jumblatt, Hezbollah and Amal combined probably don’t have more than 1% support amongst the entire Christian population. The 2000 election law helped deliver 50% of the Christian seats to people that don’t represent Christians. This is absolutely disgusting and frightening. To see Christians being insulted in such a way is a massive breach of democracy and of the Lebanese constitution.

  The biggest beneficiary was none other than Walid Jumblatt, as Christian seats accounted for 50% of his parliamentary bloc. Hariri was also a major beneficiary with Christians MPs accounting for 47% of his bloc. Hezbollah/Amal also benefitted but not to the same extent, as Christians only accounted for 20% of their blocs. This gerrymandering of election laws and sidelining of Christians has to stop. Not only did the 2005 election sideline the Christians, Christians even had to face the disgusting prospect of Hariri running candidates for seats in Christian areas were he has ‘zero’ representation such as Zahle and Jbeil. He even wanted to add insult to injury.

  The current government make-up is perhaps more disgusting to Christians than the parliament. Of the 12 Christian ministers, 6 are part of Hariri’s bloc and 1 is part of Jumblatt’s bloc. How do these people represent the Christians? To their credit, Hezbollah/Amal have no Christian ministers. One Christian minister is an independent and one is pro-Lahoud. Only 3 of the 12 Christian ministers were members of Christian parties (includes the late Pierre Gemayyel). We Christians are being sidelined in the government. Because of this reason, the government has to fall. The Christians that are calling for more Christian representation are being labeled ridiculous names such as ‘pro-Syrians’ and silly things like being against the international tribunal. Hariri/Jumblatt are trying to distract the Christian people with lies so that they can remain in power. I hope the Christians are a bit more intelligent than this. The Christians must continue to call for the government to collapse and for new elections under a fair election law to get back their full representation. The Christians are now being supported by Hezbollah in regards to this and we now form a majority. We must continue to call for this and not back down just because Hezbollah is now with us. We must use Hezbollah’s support to get what we want and take advantage of this.

  His Eminence Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir in a recent interview with May Chidiac also called for new elections under a fair election law. With pressure from Cardinal Sfeir, Hezbollah, Amal and Aoun and allies, new elections under a fair election law may take place ahead of schedule. What is really important is for Christian parties such as the Lebanese Forces, Kataeb and Ahrar to join in these calls for new elections. What will they do? Do they want a Lebanon where Christians are equal? The Lebanese Forces only have 5 seats in parliament, Kataeb just 2 and Ahrar none. Don’t they want more seats in parliament? Why aren’t they calling for new elections?

• 2. reine | January 9th, 2007 at 1:46 pm

  ya O, el general bi moun…mish hek?

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